Every year the Malta Libraries organises a Summer Programme of hands-on and library-related activities for young library members and their parents/guardians. All activities used to be organised in the various public library spaces but this year the activities were moved to the National Library to give the young ones the opportunity to visit and experience the space. For many it was a first-time experience and were unaware of the work that goes on inside. The idea was to focus on items from the national collection, display some select items of interest, make them accessible by describing the items/collections to them in a way that could potentially inspire them to be creative and to raise awareness on the hidden gems of the library.
Joseph Schirò was invited, as President of the Malta Map Society, to do a session on the collection of maps found at the National Library and it was titled in Maltese Mapep: Kif u x’fatta (maps: why and in what way). Since the audience was inter-generational, a lot of preparation and planning went into the session to be able to keep the interest of both parents/guardians and the children. The outcome was a great success because various cartographic curiosities and some unknown facts were highlighted, interspersed with small doses of humour.
The session ended with a game called ‘Windows on Valletta’ where the children and the parents/guardians were given pictures of important and historical buildings in Valletta and they had to place them in their right position on the large outline plan of Valletta which was prepared for the occasion.
The supposedly hour-long session protracted to more than an hour and a half and the children kept asking questions even after the session. It was heartening to hear a child ask his mother what studies he needed to complete to be able to enjoy and study old maps.
